Patent application title: Internet Search Engine with Display

Abstract:

The display of a search engine provides advertisements with video and
audio content. A plurality of search results is displayed on a web page
with a paired video advertisement. The advertisements are ordered and the
audio portion of each advertisement is played according to the ordering.
Each search result is listed by web site with a plurality of web pages
from each web site shown as thumbnail images. One of the images is a hit
page from the website and is highlighted. Additional hit pages are
indicated in another field. If the website has more pages than the number
of image fields, all pages of the website are streamed through the image
fields. The advertisement paired with a website in the search results may
be selected based on the search term or any derivation of the search,
including tags on the website or hit page.

Claims:

1. A search engine for locating resources on a computer network in
response to a search inquiry from any of a plurality of user stations on
said network, wherein resources on the network are grouped into a
plurality of host sites at diverse locations on the network with at least
some of said plurality of host sites including sub-groupings of resources
arranged as pages that are linked by navigation internal to the host
site, and a resource locator address identifies the respective locations
of the plurality of host sites on the computer network, and wherein a
searchable archive of network resources contains selected data indicating
host site content, including host site page content and the resource
locator address of each of the plurality of host sites, the search engine
comprising:inquiry means for receiving a search term inquiry from a user
station on the network;search means for searching said archive of network
resources and creating a hit list of at least one identified host site
having correlation to said search term inquiry;page selection means for
selecting a hit page of said identified host site correlating with said
search inquiry and for identifying at least a second page within the
identified host site, if present in the network resource archive;search
result reporting means for simultaneously displaying to the user station
on the network at least the following data for said identified host
site:the resource locator address of the identified host site; anda
selected portion of data from the archive of the identified host site,
including an image of said hit page and an image of said second page, if
a second page is present in the archive;whereby, the search engine
delivers to the user station a search result including the resource
locator address of the identified host site, an archived image of a hit
page of the identified host site and an archived image of another page
within the identified host site, if available in the archive.

2. The search engine of claim 1, further comprising:a searchable
advertisement archive of displayable video clips having audio
content;wherein said inquiry means further comprises:a first search
engine web page including a search term input box displayed to a user
station accessing the search engine and a selected number of video
display fields;video control means for selecting a number of video clips
from said advertisement archive in like number to said selected number of
video display fields and for displaying the video content of said
selected video clips in said video display fields on said first web page;
andaudio control means for ordering said selected video clips in a
series, if more than one, and sequentially supplying audio content of the
selected video clips in said series to the user station.

3. The search engine of claim 1, further comprising:a searchable
advertisement archive of displayable advertisements having video and
audio content;wherein said search result reporting means further
comprises:advertisement selection means for selecting an advertisement
from said advertisement archive by correlation with said search term
inquiry and for displaying the video content of said selected
advertisement in juxtaposition to said displayed data for said identified
host site.

4. The search engine of claim 3, wherein said hit list identifies a
plurality of host sites, said page selection means identifies said hit
page and second pages with respect to said plurality of host sites, said
search result reporting means displays images of said hit page and second
page for the plurality of the identified host sites; and said
advertisement selection means selects advertisements and displays video
content of said advertisements in juxtaposition to the plurality of the
identified host sites, further comprising:means for ordering said
selected advertisements in series and supplying audio content of each
selected advertisement in said ordered series to the user station.

5. The search engine of claim 1, further comprising:hit page counting
means for counting the number of pages containing hits within a host site
on said hit list; andwherein said search reporting means further
comprises a display of a hit page count from said hit page counting
means.

6. The search engine of claim 1, wherein:said search result reporting
means comprises a display containing a plurality of image display fields
in preselected number, each capable of displaying an image of a web page
from said identified host site; andfurther comprising a web page
selection means for displaying a preselected number of web pages from the
identified host site in equal number to said preselected number of image
display fields, for determining whether the identified host site has more
pages than the preselected number of image display fields, and for
streaming all pages of the identified host site through the image display
fields if the identified web site has more pages than the preselected
number of image display fields.

7. A method of presenting a search engine and hit list of search results
to a user station on a computer network, wherein resources on the
computer network are grouped into a plurality of host sites at diverse
locations on the network with at least some of said plurality of host
sites including sub-groupings of resources arranged as pages that are
linked by navigation internal to the host site, a resource locator
address identifies the respective locations of the plurality of host
sites on the computer network, and the search engine is in communication
with a searchable archive of network resources containing selected data
indicating host site content, including host site page content and the
resource locator address of each of the plurality of host sites,
comprising:providing a search term input field for receiving a search
term inquiry from a user station on the network;conducting a search by
searching said searchable archive for the search term; andproducing a hit
list of search results from the searchable archive, identified by host
site and by a hit page within each host site;providing a search reporting
page showing at least a portion of the search hit list, simultaneously
displaying to the user station on the network at least the following data
in grouped fields for an archived selected host site on the hit list:the
resource locator address of the selected host site;a text extract from an
archived hit page within the selected host site;a series of at least two
image display fields, displaying an image of said archived hit page in
one field and displaying an image of a second archived page of the
archived selected host site in a second field, if a second page is
present in the archive;determining whether the archive of the selected
host site contains pages in addition to said hit page and second page;
andif additional pages are present, displaying all archived pages of the
selected host site in said series of image display fields in a streaming
series of pages.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the search engine is in communication
with a searchable advertisement archive of displayable advertisements
having video and audio content, further comprising:providing a first
search engine web page including said search term input field and a
predetermined plurality of video display fields;selecting from said
advertisement archive a plurality of advertisements in like number to
said predetermined plurality of video display fields;displaying the video
content of said selected advertisements in said video display fields on
said first web page;ordering said selected advertisements in a series;
andsequentially supplying audio content of the selected advertisements to
the user station in the order of said series.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the search engine is in communication
with a searchable advertisement archive of displayable advertisements
having video and audio content, and said search reporting page displays
grouped data fields for each of a plurality of selected host sites on the
hit list, further comprising:selecting from said advertisement archive a
plurality of advertisements, equal in number to said plurality of
selected host sites, wherein the advertisements are selected by
correlation with said search term inquiry;pairing each selected
advertisement with a host site from the hit list;displaying the video
content of each selected advertisement in a display field juxtaposed to
the grouped fields for the paired host site;ordering the selected
advertisements in a series; andsequentially supplying audio content of
each selected advertisement to the user station in accordance with the
ordered series.

10. The method of claim 7, further comprising:counting the number of hit
pages within an archived host site on said hit list;determining whether
the number of hit pages within the archived host site is greater than the
number of hit pages displayed in the image display fields for the search
result of the selected archived host site;displaying the hit page count
in a data field for the search result for the respective archived host
site; andlinking the hit page count data field to the resource locator
address of a hit page.

11. The method of claim 7, further comprising:displaying a preselected
number of archived web pages from the identified archived host site in
equal number to said number of image display fields;determining whether
the identified archived host site has more pages than the preselected
number of image display fields; andstreaming all pages of the identified
archived host site through the image display fields if the identified
archived web site has more pages than the preselected number of image
display fields.

12. The method of claim 7, wherein a user station on the network includes
a selection means for selecting an image display field of said series of
image display fields, further comprising:detecting the selection of an
image display field displaying an archived page image;locating on the
computer network a page correlating to the archived page; andretrieving
the located page; anddisplaying the located page.

13. The method of claim 7, wherein the search engine is in communication
with a searchable advertisement archive of displayable advertisements
having video and audio content, further comprising:providing a first
search engine web page including said search term input field and a
predetermined plural number of video display fields;redetermining the
number of said video display fields;if said redetermined number is less
than said predetermined number, annexing juxtaposed video display fields
to conform the resultant number of video display fields to said
redetermined number;selecting from said advertisement archive a plurality
of advertisements in like number to said redetermined number of video
display fields;displaying the video content of said selected
advertisements in said video display fields on said first web page;if the
redetermined number is greater than one, ordering said selected
advertisements in a series; andsequentially supplying audio content of
the selected advertisements to the user station in the order of said
series.

Description:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0001]1. Field of the Invention

[0002]The invention generally relates to data processing and to database
and file management or data structures. More specifically, the invention
relates to database or file accessing and to access augmentation or
optimizing.

[0004]The invention provides retrieval and presentation of data from a
network. One of the chief uses of the invention is to present data
available on a computer network. For example, the invention presents data
carried over the Internet, such as on the collection of resources known
as the World Wide Web (www), which runs on the Internet. The structure
and function of the Internet and World Wide Web provide general
background to the purpose of the invention. Some key concepts related to
the Internet and World Wide Web are described below. These descriptions
are illustrative of limited aspects of the Internet and World Wide Web
and are not exhaustive. Reference to the Internet also is representative
of still other computer networks, mutatis mutandis. Reference to the
World Wide Web also is representative to other resources on a network.
The Internet and the World Wide Web are described for purpose of example
and not limitation.

[0005]The Internet can be generally defined as a computer network that
interconnects countless smaller computer networks and individual
computers. The Internet carries a wide variety of informational content
that is publically accessible, by use of standard protocols, to users
having access to the Internet network. The World Wide Web is a collection
of interrelated resources that runs on the Internet.

[0006]One of the most common types of resource within the World Wide Web
is the website or host site. A website is a document or discrete
collection of information that is identified by a specific resource
locator, which also identifies the location of the website within the
network, typically at a specified server or virtual server. Thus, in many
instances a website is a hosted location on the network and presents data
in a plurality of subgroups, referred to as web pages.

[0007]A website can be accessed by a web browser, which is a software
application that locates a specified website and presents the content to
the user. The resource locator for a website in the World Wide Web is
referred to as a URL or uniform resource locator. A resource locator may
employ a domain name, virtual domain name, or hostname in addition to
other necessary information for locating a resource. The hostname or
domain name frequently is a commonly understandable word, business name,
or descriptive term. The Internet employs a naming system referred to as
a domain name system (DNS) of domain name servers that translate a
human-friendly domain name or hostname into a computer-friendly numerical
address for the website or resource. The numerical address is referred to
as the IP address or Internet Protocol address.

[0008]A website often is known to human users of the Internet network by
its URL or hostname. The human-friendly URL names are highly useful for
the additional reason that the IP address can be changed while the URL
name remains the same. Thus, a website in a particular domain can be
moved to a new location, such as to a different server on the Internet,
without requiring a change in the URL or hostname. The URL or hostname
merely is updated to the new IP address on the DNS servers.

[0009]A website on the World Wide Web may be a collection of web pages.
The URL or hostname that is catalogued on DNS servers identifies the
website in general and is linked to an IP address of the website. In
general, reference to a hostname will refer to a general name for a
website, registered with DNS servers. A web page within a website may be
given its own human-friendly URL, which typically is the URL or hostname
with added identifiers. A web page address within a website typically
will not be catalogued at a top level domain name server. Rather, the DNS
server will provide the location of the domain of the website. A lower
level directory, perhaps associated with the website itself, may
translate the added identifiers to the various web pages within a
website. Of course, an individual web page can be equivalent to a website
and have its own hostname.

[0010]Often the information on a collection of pages within a website is
interrelated in some manner. The web pages may be hyperlinked together so
that they may be viewed in an order. A hyperlink is a navigation aid that
directs a web browser to an IP address. Although each web page has its
own IP address, users often access a website by the URL of the domain to
first reach the opening web page, referred to as the homepage, and then
navigate through the website using the hyperlinked ordering of the pages.

[0011]A web browser can locate and present a web page by its URL or IP
address. In addition, a web browser can follow hyperlinks that may be
present on a presented web page to locate and present the targeted web
pages. These methods of reaching web pages are limited in their adequacy.
The user may not know any URL for a web page containing the information
he desires. Even if the user knows one or more web pages containing
desired information, the system of hyperlinks on the known web pages may
be incomplete and may fail to lead to other relevant web pages.

[0012]Web search engines have been developed to overcome these limitations
and to facilitate the location of relevant web pages. A web search engine
operates by referring to a database or archive of selected, recorded
information about resources on a network. A search engine typically
operates by keyword searching. The search engine consults the indexed
database and determines which resources, such as which web pages, refer
to the search keyword. Then, by various proprietary schemes, the search
engine returns an ordered listing of the resources that were located.

[0013]As presently practiced by web search engines, each individual
listing of a web page presents a fragment of text containing the keyword
as found on a web page. The user is able to review the list and select
any web page, based upon the fragment of text. The listing includes a
hyperlink to the web page, allowing the web browser to locate and present
the selected web page.

[0014]The search engine employs an automated software application known as
a spider or web crawler to survey the available web pages of the World
Wide Web or other body of information. The web crawler is similar to a
browser, in that it presents the content or a selected portion of the
content for indexing in the database. When a user initiates a keyword
search, the search engine refers to the database in order to identify
content and location. The returned listing includes the hyperlink to the
web page, itself, rather than to the database. Often, the search engine
will include a separate hyperlink to the version of the web page in the
database.

[0015]A website frequently includes characterizing terminology in a header
that is invisible to the viewer but discoverable by search engines and
web crawlers. Such terminology is known as tags, sometimes called meta
tags or keyword tags. Tags help the search engine select the website as
relevant to the topics of the tags. For example, a keyword search might
match the search keyword with a keyword tag. A website can have tags and
pages within a website can have their own tags. Thus, search engines
often select individual pages of a website within a listing of search
results.

[0016]Advertising revenue supports substantially every wellknown WWW
search engine. Based upon the keywords of the search, selected
advertisements appear on displayed pages of search results. Sometimes,
advertisers appear in a separate column of web page listings. Selected
advertisers often pay to be listed at the top of the results list.

[0017]An end user can access the World Wide Web and other resources
running on the Internet by use of a local computer or workstation that is
connected to a networked computer or server of the Internet. Typically,
the networked server is administered by an Internet Service Provider
(ISP), which is a business that offers Internet access via a paid
subscription account. The ISP may provide other related services, such as
email and hosting services for the user's website. The local computer
runs a web browser. The user need know little about the Internet, as the
complexity and protocols of moving through the networks is handled by the
browser software. Often the user needs to know only how to find a search
engine and enter search keywords. The ISP typically provides an opening
web page to its subscribers, and this web page often includes hyperlinks
to popular search engines. Thus, the search engine is a key feature that
allows almost anyone, even those who understand little about the
Internet, to locate and view resources on the Internet.

[0018]The search engine serves the essential function by organizing or
indexing the body of data that otherwise is disorganized in the World
Wide Web. The amount of data, web pages, and other resources on the
Internet is growing in size at a rapid pace. The amount of information
made available to a user by a keyword search can be overwhelming. A
keyword search might return hundreds or thousands of web pages in the
results listings. Even with the organizational advantage of a search
engine, an end user frequently is challenged to select the most pertinent
resources in the results listing. End users increasingly want and need
the results listing to have improved clarity and precision, enabling
faster and more accurate cursory review before the user selects which
hyperlinks to follow.

[0019]Satisfactory management of search results is becoming increasingly
difficult to achieve. A user may receive countless pages of resource
listings, typically presented with ten resources per page. When the user
is presented with such vast numbers of search results, certainly one
common response to look no further than the first few listed web pages or
perhaps to look at only the listings on the first page or two or resource
listings. There is no assurance that the first listings are, in fact, the
most pertinent; but the user is effectively prevented from further
inquiry by overwhelmingly large size of the results listing and by the
limited quantity of the user's own available time.

[0020]The search engine often contributes to this problem by needlessly
expanding the size of the results list. Commonly, a search engine will
list a same web page more than one time in a results list if the web page
contains the search keyword at several different locations. Repeated
display of the same web page is unnecessary and needlessly expands the
results list.

[0021]The priority display of paid results listings also can degrade the
user's ability to manage search results. While the advertisements may be
critically important to the financial health of the search engine, the
advertisements push the most pertinent search results further down the
results list. In addition, users may learn to ignore the paid listings,
which degrades the value of advertising and eventually can undermine the
financial health of the search engine. What is needed is a paid listing
display that is both distinguished from search results and of vastly
improved value to the user. Such an arrangement revitalizes the value of
advertisements to both the advertiser and the user, enhancing the
financial health of the search engine.

[0022]It would be desirable to create a search engine that presents search
results with improved clarity, enabling more accurate selection of
pertinent hyperlinks. In particular, the human mind is able to grasp a
great deal of information at one time, if the information is suitably
presented. The present practice of displaying fragments of text
containing the search keyword is inefficient and prevents the rapid
management of the search result. The user is required to comprehend and
evaluate the pertinence of a resource, based upon consideration of a text
fragment. The difficulty of ascertaining a fair meaning from a fragment
can lead to a needless time pause for consideration of each listed
resource.

[0023]Further, since advertisements are an essential means of supporting
the operation of search engines, it would be desirable to present
advertisements with improved, attention-getting ability that is
distinguished from search results.

[0024]To achieve the foregoing and other objects and in accordance with
the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described
herein, the method of this invention may comprise the following.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0025]Against the described background, it is therefore a general object
of the invention to provide a display of search results that presents
entire websites from a hit list in streaming mode and provides paired
advertisement that correlate to the search so as to supplement the
content of the search result.

[0026]According to the invention, a search engine locates resources on a
computer network in response to a search inquiry from any of a plurality
of user stations on said network. Typically, as on the Internet,
resources on the network are grouped into a plurality of host sites at
diverse locations on the network with at least some of the plurality of
host sites including sub-groupings of resources arranged as web pages
that are linked by navigation internal to the host site. A resource
locator address identifies the respective locations of the plurality of
host sites on the computer network. A searchable archive of network
resources contains selected data indicating host site content. The
archive contains host site page content and the resource locator address
of each of the plurality of host sites. The search engine provides an
inquiry function receiving a search term inquiry from a user station on
the network. A search function searching the archive of network resources
and creates a hit list consisting of at least one identified host site
that has correlation to the search term inquiry. A page selection
function selects a hit web page from the archived host site, wherein the
content of the hit page correlates with the search inquiry. The page
selection function also identifies at least a second page within the
archive of the host site, if present in the network resource archive. A
search result reporting function simultaneously displays chosen parts of
the identified website to the user station on the network. These chosen
portions include the resource locator address of the identified host site
and a selected portion of data from the archive of the identified host
site. The data from archive includes an image of a hit page and an image
of another page, if another page is present in the archive. As a result,
the search engine delivers to the user station a search result including
the resource locator address of the identified host site, an archived
image of a hit page of the identified host site and an archived image of
another page within the identified host site, if available in the
archive.

[0027]In another aspect of the search engine, a searchable advertisement
archive contains displayable advertisements having video and audio
content. The search engine provides an opening web page having a search
term input box displayed. The opening web page further provides a
plurality of video display fields. An advertisement selector chooses
advertisements from the archive of advertisements to populate the
plurality of video display fields. An audio controller arranges the
chosen advertisements in a series and sequentially plays audio content of
the chosen advertisements in sequence to the user station.

[0028]In a further aspect, another page of the search engine reports the
search results. On the results page, the search engine pairs each website
of the results hit list with an advertisement from the advertisement
archive. The search engine then displays the video content of the
selected advertisement in juxtaposition to the search result for the
paired website. Audio control is achieved by ordering the selected
advertisements in series and supplying audio content of each selected
advertisement in the ordered sequence.

[0029]The search engine reports search results as entire websites. A
website on the hit list has at least one web page that counts as a hit. A
hit-page-counter determines how may other pages within a website contain
a hit and lists this result with links to the other hit web pages.

[0030]After the search engine has populated the image display fields of a
search result with images of selected pages from the website archive, the
search engine determine whether the web site includes additional pages.
If additional pages are present in the archive, the search engine streams
all pages of the archived website through the image display fields so
that the entire website can be previewed from the search results page.

[0031]The invention also is a method of presenting a search engine and a
hit list of search results. The method is applicable to a computer
network in which resources are grouped into a plurality of host sites at
diverse locations on the network. At least some of the host sites contain
sub-groupings of resources arranged as web pages, which typically are
linked by navigation internal to the host site. A resource locator
address identifies the location each host site on the computer network.
The search engine is in communication with a searchable archive of
network resources. The archive contains data indicating host site
content, including host site page content, and the resource locator
address of each host site. The method provides a search term input field
for receiving a search term inquiry from a user station on the network.
The search engine then conducts a search by searching the searchable
archive of website for the search term. The search produces a hit list of
websites and also identifies at least one hit page within each archived
website. From the archived version of each website, the search engine
displays the resource locator address for the website, a text extract
from a hit page, and a series of image display fields showing an image of
an archived web page in each. One of the images is of a hit webpage. If
the website is found to contain more pages than the number of image
display fields, the search engine streams all pages of the website
through the series of image display fields.

[0032]The search engine is in communication of a searchable advertisement
archive of displayable advertisements having video and audio content. An
opening web for the search engine provides a search term input field and
a plurality of video display fields. The search engine populates the
video display fields on the opening pages with advertisements from the
archive of advertisements. The video display fields play the video
content of the populated advertisements. In addition, the search engine
orders the populated advertisements in a series and sequentially supplys
the audio content of each advertisement in the order of the series.

[0033]On the search-reporting page, the search engine displays data
extracted from archived websites on the hit list of search results.
Archived advertisements selected are paired with websites on the hit
list. The video content of the selected advertisements is displayed,
juxtaposed to the extracted data from the paired website. The search
engine orders the selected advertisements in a series and sequentially
supplying audio content of each selected advertisement in the order of
the series.

[0034]The search engine monitors and reports the number of hit web pages
in each website of the search results. The related method is to count the
number of hit pages within a host site on the hit list; determine whether
the number of hit pages is greater than the number of hit pages displayed
in image display fields for the search result of the selected host site,
display the hit page count in a data field for the search result for the
respective host site; and link the hit page count data field to the
resource locator address of a hit page.

[0035]The search engine also streams images of every page in an archived
website if the total number of pages in the website is greater than the
number of image display fields. The related method is to display a
preselected number of web pages from the identified host site in equal
number to the number of image display fields; to determine whether the
identified host site has more pages than the preselected number of image
display fields; and to streaming all pages of the identified host site
through the image display fields if the identified web site has more
pages than the preselected number of image display fields.

[0036]The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and form a part
of the specification, illustrate preferred embodiments of the present
invention, and together with the description, serve to explain the
principles of the invention. In the drawings:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

[0037]FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing login and display functions applicable
to an opening page of search engine operation.

[0038]FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing search and advanced search functions
applicable to an opening page of search engine operation.

[0039]FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing login and preferences functions
applicable to a search results page of search engine operation.

[0041]FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing display of commercials and sound
selection functions applicable to a search results page of search engine
operation.

[0042]FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing selection and hyperlink to search
result websites and showing display of website text on a search results
page of search engine operation.

[0043]FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing control and display of a total pages
button on a search results page of search engine operation.

[0044]FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing control of streaming images from a
website on a search results page of search engine operation.

[0045]FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing continuations of flowcharts from FIG.
8.

[0046]FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing a GUI with layout of
functions on an opening page of a search engine website.

[0047]FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram showing a a GUI with first embodiment
of the layout of functions on a search results page of a search engine
website.

[0048]FIG. 12 is a lower continuation of FIG. 11.

[0049]FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram similar to FIG. 11, showing a second
embodiment thereof.

[0050]FIG. 14 is a lower continuation of FIG. 13.

[0051]FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram similar to FIG. 11, showing a third
embodiment thereof.

[0052]FIG. 16 is a lower continuation of FIG. 15.

[0053]FIG. 17 is a schematic diagram of the search engine in relation to
the Internet.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0054]The invention is an improved search engine for finding and reporting
network resources on a computer network, which may be composed of a
plurality of servers and general-purpose computers. With reference to
FIG. 17, the search engine is a software application that resides and
runs on a server 300 or server farm within a computer network and employs
an associated indexed archive or database 302 of archived, indexed
resources running on a the network 304, such as the Internet.

[0055]The indexed resources of database 302 are known or indexed by
identifying criteria such as hostname and resource locator address. On
the Internet, a hostname is an individual domain name. Often a hostname
can be characterized as a second-level domain on the Internet. Other
hostnames can be characterized as subdomain names and vanity domain
names. A vanity domain is a domain known by another name but aliased to a
user account. The resource locator address, which is often called a URL,
uses a domain name in combination with other identifiers. A URL is
equivalent to, or translated to, the address of a resource on a network.
On the Internet, the resource is known as a website. A website is a
grouping of data at an identified location on a network. Thus, a website
on the Internet can be defined as a location on the Internet network
containing data at a location identified by a URL and named by a domain
name.

[0056]A website can be broken down into sub-groupings of information,
which are defined as web pages, typically common to a hostname or domain
name. A web page refers to an information set that can be accessed
through a web browser. A web page within a website may or may not have a
static URL. A web page with static content may have a static URL, while a
web page with dynamic content will not. For example, a search engine
produces a dynamic web page of search results. The static or dynamic URL
for a web page will be based upon the hostname or domain name for the
website, with added information specific to the web page. A website opens
with a front page or homepage when the URL for the second-level domain is
followed. Remaining pages in the website typically are reached by
internal hyperlinks.

[0057]A computer network consists of two, three, or more computers
connected together by a communication system so that they can share
resources. The Internet includes a countless number of computers. Some
computers are known as servers, while others are known as workstations or
dumb terminal. Server computers communicate and provide various types of
services with other computers known as clients. Often a server is a
full-time participant in a network such as the Internet, while client
computers may vary in their time or degree of participation. Workstations
are computers used by humans for such tasks as accessing a server,
inputting data, and retrieving data. The ultimate user of a network such
as the Internet is a human, typically accessing the network through a
workstation, client computer, or the like. The term, user station, will
generally refer to any type of computer, terminal, or other access point
to a network, allowing a user to input and retrieve data. A user station
typically will have a display screen for receiving data from the network
in the form of pages or web pages.

[0058]In response to receiving a requested keyword search from another
server or user station 306 on the network 304, the search engine locates
resources that correlate with the search term by examining the archived
contents of the network resource data bank 302. Correlation may refer to
any scheme of processing a search inquiry to derive a search result. For
example, the correlation may be exact, such as the discovery of the exact
search term in a host site archived in the data bank 302. As other
examples, search schemes may seek variations of the search term, such as
plural or singular, various truncations or expansions, synonyms, roots,
categorizations, and variations in spelling. The search may derive a
search result by applying an algorithm or logical abstraction to the
search inquiry.

[0059]The search engine identifies such relevant resources as may be found
in the archive 302 and reports this result to the user station 306. The
results are presented in an ordered list showing occurrences of
correlations with the search term. The list will be called a hit list.
Each occurrence of a correlation will be called a hit. A single website
may contain one or more hits occurring on one or more web pages. For each
hit, the search engine acquires the network address, such as the URL,
from the archive. The search engine then returns a display of the hits
for user review, together with hyperlinks to the websites and web pages
containing the hits.

[0060]The search engine is useable by a human user at a user station, for
example a general-purpose computer on the Internet. For example, a user
on the Internet may communicate through a personal computer 306, also
known as a PC, with central processing unit or CPU. Personal computers
presently are identified as two popular types: one is IBM PC compatible,
while the other is Apple Macintosh. Either type employs a computer
interface with a video display 308 or video monitor screen, a text and
numerical input device such as a keyboard 310, a sound output device such
as audio chip and speakers 312, and a selection means such as a graphical
pointing device, often referred to as a computer mouse 314, trackball,
touchpad, or the like. Many of these devices have still more variants
than those specifically named. References to general types of devices or
to specific examples of the general types should be understood to be for
purposes of example and not limitation.

[0061]The computer runs under control of suitable software, which includes
an operating system. Examples of operating systems include Microsoft
Windows, Unix, Linux, Mac OS X, and BSD.

[0062]The operating system controls many aspects of computer operation and
provides and controls a graphical user interface (GUI) 316 on the
computer display 308. Specifically, the GUI uses the graphical pointing
device or mouse 314 to input information and to direct a mouse pointer or
cursor on the computer display. The mouse pointer or cursor is a device
that indicates an input-related position on a monitor screen. The GUI
often provides buttons, icons, fields, or other selected locations on the
display screen where the cursor can be located. The button, icon, field,
or the like represents a computer file, folder, or software program.

[0063]The mouse 314 includes one or more buttons that can be pressed,
referred to as a click, while the cursor is placed on the button or icon
of the GUI to cause the operating system or other software to select,
open, or actuate the represented file, folder, link, or program. This
operation is generally known as clicking. A often has at least two
buttons such that clicking can be broken down into right-clicking or
left-clicking, each with different result according to software control.
Clicking often is divided into single clicking and double-clicking.
Single clicking often selects the icon presently at the cursor.
Double-clicking often actuates or opens the file, folder, or program
associated with the icon. On the Internet, an icon or button often is a
hyperlink. Single clicking the icon or button on the Internet can be
sufficient to select and actuate the hyperlink. Thus, a mouse 314 or
other graphical pointing device under software control is a common
example of a means for selecting a field or other content on the GUI and
actuating a hyperlink associated with the field.

[0064]As a first improvement, the search engine displays the search result
as images of archived web pages of a website containing hits. The images
are small, known as thumbnail images or miniaturized screen shots. These
thumbnail images are derived from database 302 and are generated on the
computer display of the user station, typically a general-purpose
computer.

[0065]The human brain can take in a large block of suitably presented
information in an instant. For example, a fast reader comprehends an
entire sentence rather than the individual words. In some cases, a fast
reader comprehends an entire paragraph or an entire page in a single
glance. Therefore, the presentation of an entire web page at one time
offers a potential for vastly increasing the speed and accuracy of a
user's comprehension of the search result listing. Even with imperfect
comprehension of a thumbnail web page, the user should find an improved
ability to determine whether following the hyperlink to the full web page
is worthwhile.

[0066]Further, inquiry into a website frequently leads to more than one
web page containing pertinent information, even if some of the other web
pages are not selected as hits. In order to present the full range of
pertinent information, the search engine identifies the website that
contains a hit. The display of search results includes a series of image
display fields or logical boxes. The search engine displays a plurality
of archived pages of the website containing a hit, if such plurality is
available, even if some pages do not contain a hit. The pages are
simultaneously displayed in the search result as contents of a series of
a predetermined number of image display fields. If the website contains
more pages than the predetermined number of image display boxes, the
archived pages of the website are presented as a streaming series of web
page images of the website, advancing sequentially through the image
display fields. The flow of streaming web pages allows the user to
evaluate a still larger body of information without expending the time to
visit the website. The user can better sort between search results and
identify entire websites that are most pertinent to his search inquiry.

[0067]As an example of a search engine that can provide the described
benefits, FIGS. 1-9 show the flow of a software program that delivers
these benefits. A software program of this sort will be referred to as a
search engine. The software program resides on a network such as the
Internet and is a resource that runs on that network, such as a resource
of the World Wide Web. Specifically, the software is reached at a
website, which opens at a specific web page such as a homepage of the
search engine. From the homepage, the software runs on the network in
response to inputs from the user. A user wishing to employ this search
engine can do so by accessing the website of the search engine, for
example by entering the URL or IP address of the search engine website
into a suitable browser. Perhaps more commonly, the user will reach the
search engine by clicking a hyperlink found elsewhere, such as on a
homepage of the user's ISP website.

[0068]The search engine causes the display of search hits to be
categorized and displayed by website. The display shows web pages of each
archived website containing a hit. The search results are unique in their
content and grouping. Various groupings in FIGS. 10-16 illustrate
preferred arrangements of search results. Portions of each result are
displayed in a plurality of fields that are arranged in a group or array.
FIGS. 10-16 show groupings of data fields. The box images indicate the
intended location of data by framing a representative area of the display
screen. In use, the framed areas will have content. The box frame may be
absent or invisible on an actual display screen.

[0069]An opening page or homepage of the search engine may display the
content of FIG. 10. Across a page header, the opening page displays a
title field 201, which may identify the search engine by a popular name.
A next box 202 may be a button for initiating a search. Accordingly, the
button 202 is labeled informatively, such as with the heading, "Quick
Search." Button 202 also directs the user to search term entry box 204
where a search term or keyword may be entered. Below the search term box
204, the page may list a "preferences" button 206 and an "advanced
search" button 208. The "preferences" button 206 opens a page allowing
the user to list or change his personal preferences, described below. The
"advanced search" button 208 opens a page allowing the user to search
using a special set of search criteria.

[0070]Below the header, the homepage provides an initially predetermined
plurality of major commercial display fields 210. The size and
arrangement of the display fields may depend upon the screen size and
resolution of a visual display monitor 308 at a user station. Often, four
display fields 210 will be arranged in a 2×2 matrix. As desired, or
as determined by software analysis explained below, the fields 210 may be
annexed to produce other arrangements, patterns, and resultant numbers of
available commercial display fields. For example, two juxtaposed fields
210 in a single row may be annexed to form a single, wide field 210,
producing a resultant three video display fields. Three resultant fields
also may be achieved an annexing two juxtaposed fields 210 in a single
column to form a single, tall field 210. The four fields 210 displayed in
FIG. 10 may be annexed to form a resultant single large field.

[0071]Each available field displays a hyperlinked commercial movie clip
from a database 318, preferably with audio and video content. In the
context of this search engine, an advertisement or commercial is a video
clip or short presentation in the mode of a motion picture. The video
content of such a video clip is composed of individual pictures, scenes,
or frames presented in sequence. A single frame has a file size of about
two kilobytes or more. This file size and video content mark a
significant departure from the common practice of displaying static or
animated banner ads on search engines and web pages.

[0072]The search engine selects these advertisements from database 318
containing available advertisements. The advertisements may be associated
with tags such as keyword tags to assist the search engine in selecting
an advertisement. The database 318 archives advertisements by sponsors
who have arranged to have their advertisements specifically displayed on
the web pages of the search engine. An advertisement in a field 210 is
hyperlinked to the advertiser's website on network 304. The user can
advance directly to an advertiser's website on the network 304 by
actuating the hyperlink, such as by clicking a field 210. These initially
displayed advertisements are selected and displayed according to
conventional practices, such as according to advertiser bid or
contractual choices.

[0073]A second page of the search engine website is a search results page.
In part, the page is assembled as a specific product of each search.
FIGS. 11 and 12 show features of enduring content and arrangement of a
search results page. FIG. 11 is the top half of the first search results
page. The search results page may repeat the header boxes, such as boxes
201-208. Optionally, the positions of boxes 201-208 are varied as
compared to the homepage header. Below these header boxes are a plurality
of sets of fields arranged in groups or arrays. Portions of each archived
website within the search results will appear in one array of fields.
Each group of fields is dedicated to a unique website within the search
results. Depending upon the keyword or search term that was employed for
conducting the search, the fields of each group will display a
combination of data derived from an archived website within the search
result. The displayed data is obtained from database 302. Preferably,
four websites from the results will be featured on each results page.

[0074]FIG. 11 shows two groups of fields suited for displaying search
results related to two websites. For each of the two leading results, the
search results page displays a website title at a respective field 212.
The title may be hyperlinked to the website URL on network 304, if
desired. In a text display field 214 below the title of each website, the
search engine will list a text extract from the archived results website
showing the language of the hit. Text display field 214 also will list
the URL of the website on network 304, which is hyperlinked to the
homepage of the results website on network 304.

[0075]In a plurality of streaming image fields 216 below the text display
box 214, this archived website from the search engine results will be
shown as thumbnail images of a like number of selected pages, as may be
present from the archived website. If more pages are available than the
number of fields 216, the available fields will display initially
selected page images, and under software control, offer the capability of
presenting the remainder of pages in the archived website as a streaming
series such that pages of the website will be displayed in a sequence.
One of the streaming image fields 216, such as the fourth or last of such
fields in each series will be a hit box, which displays an archived web
page that contains a hit from the search. This streaming image field will
be highlighted to identify it as the hit box.

[0076]At optional hit count field 218, the search result will indicate the
hit count of the website in terms of the number of pages containing a
hit, in excess of the hit page displayed in the hit box. The hit count
field may state the number of other pages in the website containing hits,
if any. The hit count field 218 may be omitted as desired, and
particularly is not needed for websites that have only one hit or hits on
only one page, such as the page displayed in the hit box.

[0077]Finally, a major field 220 is located to the right of the streaming
thumbnail images. In this field, the search engine will display a
selected commercial, preferably as a video clip with capability to play
sound. Unlike the random commercials shown in fields 210 on the homepage,
the commercials in commercial player fields 220 are chosen for a
relationship or correlation to the subject matter searched. Thus, the
stored advertisements in database 318 may be associated with meta tags,
advertising words, or other identifiers to allow selection of an
appropriate commercial video clip. The correlation between an
advertisement and a search inquiry may be the result of any series of
steps or comparisons that is initiated by the search inquiry. Various
possible comparisons are given, below, as examples and not as
limitations.

[0078]Each website within the search results list may be accompanied by a
unique advertisement in field 220. It is possible for an advertiser to
have his commercial displayed along side his host site or website in a
search results list, whenever his website arises in a search result.
Thus, each website identified at a grouping of fields 212-218 may have
its own commercial played at the adjacent fields 220, thereby taking
maximum advantage of having been found in a search. All available
advertisements may be stored on the advertisement database 318 and
indexed for a variety of keywords or content-correlators that may arise
in a search.

[0079]The advertisement that plays in juxtaposition to a host site within
the search result may be selected based on any of several selection
criteria. For example, an advertisement may be selected because it
correlates with the search term. In that instance, the ordering of
advertisements is based on factors other than the specific identity of
the host sites selected as search results.

[0080]As another example, the advertisement playing in juxtaposition to a
search result may be selected for a correlation with that specific search
result. A host site selected as a search result may have its own meta
tags or keyword tags. These aspects of the selected host site within the
search result can be used to correlate with advertisements in the data
bank 318. Similarly, the hostname or resource locator address of each
selected host site in the search result provides a highly specific means
of correlating the search results with the advertisements in data bank
318. An advertiser could arrange to have his advertisement play in
juxtaposition to his own host site whenever his own host site appears in
a search result.

[0081]As still another example, each web page of a website has its own
subject matter identifiers such as its own meta tags or keyword tags.
Therefore, the correlation between a search result and a displayed
commercial can be keyed to the identifiers on a specific web page of a
host site in a list of search results. A suitable strategy would be to
identify a pertinent page of a website, based on the search inquiry from
a user station on the network. The meta tags or keyword tags on the
pertinent page then could be used as a basis to correlate with
advertisements in database 318. This strategy would cause the selected
commercial to be highly specific to the content of a pertinent page.

[0082]A further refinement can apply where an advertiser wishes to show a
specific advertisement in conjunction with the selection of a web page
from his own website. In many situations the advertiser presents a
plurality of pages on his website, each with content directed to unique
subject matter, such as a different product from the other web pages of
the site. In this instance, the advertiser may cause his commercial
playing in commercial player field 220 next to his website in the search
results to correspond to a specific one of the streaming pages in fields
216. Thus, if the user one-clicks or right-clicks on one of the streaming
thumbnails, the streaming sequence may freeze on the clicked page; and a
commercial will play in field 220 corresponding to the exact subject
matter or a keyword appearing on the clicked page. This correlation
between a search result and an advertising video clip creates a
substantial step forward in presenting pertinent information to the user.
In addition, an advertiser gains an improved ability to present his
specific product of interest to the most interested user. This
combination is expected to add both value and interest to the Internet.

[0083]The first post-search page of FIG. 11 may continue as shown in FIG.
12, with a third and fourth website hits. The format of fields 212-218
may be repeated for these results. However, as an optional variation at
any one of the results positions, shown by way of example at the fourth
or last results position on the page, a video display field 220 can offer
optional choices for content. At this optional or fourth position,
preference buttons 222-234 border the field 220. The preference buttons
are hyperlinked to information of the user's preferences. For example,
the respective buttons may link to music 222, news 224, sports 226,
stocks 228, weather 230, news tickler 232, and stock tickler 234. The
user may select a preference, which will control the display in the
optional or fourth position until the preference is changed by a
different selection.

[0084]The grouped fields within each website hit display may be arranged
in various other formats. FIGS. 13-16 illustrate these optional
arrangements, continuing to employ the previously used identifying
numbers for fields of substantially the same content or function. Thus,
FIGS. 13-14 are a first variation of FIGS. 11-12. The header boxes
201-208 of FIG. 11 may remain substantially unchanged. Similarly, in the
search results fields, title box 212 may continue to head the individual
result array of boxes. The series of streaming thumbnail fields 216 may
be advanced within the grouping to a position above text description
field 214, and the text description field may be arranged side-by-side
with the page count field 218. FIG. 14 carries forward this first
variation to the results groupings of FIG. 13.

[0085]FIGS. 15-16 show a second variation of FIGS. 11-12. Header boxes
201-208 may remain substantially unchanged. In the search results
grouping for each website hit, title field 212 continues to head the
individual website hit grouping of fields. The text description field 214
and the hit count field 218 are placed side-by-side, with the former to
the left of the latter. Field 214 and 218 are placed below the title
field 212, and the streaming image fields 216 are relocated below the
text description field 212 and hit count field 218. The commercial player
field 220 remains a major field to the right of the streaming image
fields 216.

[0086]The search engine software may run one or more processing routines
or branches, according to choices received from the user station. The web
pages that are displayed during routine operation of a search engine are
of two types. A first type is the homepage or opening page, which is the
page that a user station first reaches at the URL of the search engine.
The second type is the search results page, which is the page that a user
station next reaches after initiating a search from the homepage or from
a search results page.

[0087]FIGS. 1-9 illustrate the various routines by showing logical steps
or processing blocks. FIGS. 1-2 show processing sequences that are
operative or available from the opening page or homepage of the search
engine. FIGS. 3-9 show processing sequences that are operative or
available from the subsequently displayed search results pages. The
software communicates with the user station across the browser software
running on the user station, presenting images, hyperlinks, sound files,
and other types of resources. The user station receives and displays or
plays the resources via the browser, visually seeing certain visible
content on a computer display 308 or monitor screen and hearing audio
content on speakers 312, all associated with a general-purpose computer
station 306.

[0088]Optionally, the search engine provides a registration or recognition
of each user. This can be accomplished in any of several ways. According
to known logical systems, a user can register with a particular website
or software program. Registration typically entails selecting a login
name and password. Often, registration allows the application to record
additional information about the user, such as various personal
preferences, mailing address, and credit card information.

[0089]The homepage or opening page of the website hosting the search
engine allows the search engine to recognize users who have registered.
The search engine optionally follows the processing steps in the left
hand column of FIG. 1. After starting at block 2, the software presents a
login button at block 4, via the GUI. The user can move a pointer or
cursor under control of a computer mouse to the location of the login
button. Placing the cursor on the displayed login button, the user can
click the login button at block 6. Clicking the login button causes
display of a login box at block 8. The user can enter a username and
password into the login box at logical block 10. This information is
submitted to the search engine over the network, typically by further
clicking the login box or other submit button. The search engine receives
the login information and compares it with a database of known or
registered users. A known user is verified at block 12. The search engine
than loads previously entered and stored personal preferences of the
known user at block 14. This login portion of the software ends at block
16.

[0090]Another method and means of recognizing a prior user is by use of a
web cookie or HTTP cookie. A web cookie is a fragment of data. A server
300 on a network 304 sends the cookie to a web browser on the user
station 306, where the cookie is stored. In turn, the web browser sends
back the text fragment of data to the server 300 each time the browser
accesses the server 300. The content of the cookie can identify the user
station 306 to the server and may carry further information, such as a
user preference.

[0091]As shown in the right hand branch of the logical flow of FIG. 1, at
the main page, the search engine software can operate with or without the
login function. Starting at block 2, the software initially prepares to
display a predetermined number of video display fields, each displaying a
selected commercial. An optional initial analysis at block 17 determines
or redetermines the number of fields 210 that will be available for the
display of commercials. This optional analysis may consider factors such
as the file size of a commercial, advertiser's preference and
instructions, download speed over the network, user station screen size,
and user station screen resolution. The result may be the same number as
the initially predetermined number of video display fields; or the result
may be a smaller number. The result from the block 17 analysis determines
who many video display fields will be displayed for a specific cycle of
the search engine. If the number is less than the predetermined number
commercial display fields, some of the juxtaposed video display fields
will be annexed so that the screen at the user station is suitably
filled. The resultant number of video display fields will dictate, in
part, how many commercials are displayed to the user station at the
opening page of the search engine.

[0092]At block 18, the appropriate number of commercials is displayed.
These are the initial commercials displayed at fields 210 of FIG. 10. The
choice of initial commercials may involve various selected criteria,
including a rotation among advertisers. A plurality of commercials
greater than the number of available fields 210 may be available from
advertisements database 318. The software routine at the right column of
FIG. 1 controls the play of commercials by first selecting and displaying
the number of commercials corresponding to the number of available fields
210.

[0093]It is desirable to play commercials with sound. Method and means for
controlling sound are implemented by a software routine that selects one
of the commercials to play with sound and then rotates the sound feature
among the available commercials, if more than one commercial is being
displayed simultaneously. As indicated at block 20, each commercial is
assigned a sequential number, such as a number from one to four. At block
22 a variable, which will be referred to as Comm, is assigned a value of
one. At block 24, the software routine is caused to play the commercials,
if any, not equal to the value of variable Comm, but without sound. Then,
at block 26, a commercial with assigned number equal to variable Comm is
restarted and played with sound. Thus, initially commercial number one is
played with sound.

[0094]At block 28, the software tests whether the value of variable Comm
is equal to end, meaning that the software checks whether the commercial
playing sound has ended. If yes, processing advances to block 30, where
the assigned value of Comm is increased by one, such that Comm plus one
equals a new value of Comm. The new value may be two, which selects
commercial number two, if present, to play with sound. At block 32, the
routine checks whether all commercials have played with sound, by
checking whether variable Comm is equal to one more than the available
number of fields 210. For example, with four fields 210, block 32 checks
whether Comm equals five. If the result at block 32 is yes, variable Comm
is reassigned a value of one at block 22 and the sequence of commercials
playing sound is repeated. In the extreme case, if only one commercial is
being played, the single commercial plays with sound, repeatedly.

[0095]At block 28, if the value of Comm is not equal to end, processing
advances to block 34 where the routine checks whether the value of
commercials not equal to Comm is equal to end. Thus, the routine checks
whether any commercials not currently playing sound have ended. If any
has ended, processing advances to block 36 where these commercials are
restarted. From block 36, processing will cycle back to block 28 to
recheck whether commercial Comm has ended. Likewise, if at block 34 the
commercials not currently playing sound have not ended, processing loops
back to block 28. Thus, the commercials in the fields 210 will play with
rotating audio, which advances to a next one of the displayed commercials
when the last audio commercial has completed its run. The commercial with
sound playing is allowed to run its full length.

[0096]FIG. 2 shows a method and means for operating a search or advanced
search function from the homepage or opening page of the search engine.
The search function follows the left hand column of logical steps in FIG.
2. The search function starts at block 38 by displaying a search term
entry box at block 40, such as box 204 of FIG. 10 on the GUI 316. From
the user station, a user enters selected keywords at block 42, typically
from the keyboard or from a drop-down list of selectable keywords that
may be supplied from the search engine or from keywords previously
searched and stored in memory at the user station 306. At block 44 the
search engine searches its databases or data banks 302 for the search
term.

[0097]The search databases 302 may be those acquired in the conventional
manner by a web crawler or spider that examines the network 304. However,
the database 302 may be unique by its organization and content, according
to the software controlling the web crawler. Typically the search
database 302 will contain images of web pages and websites on the
network, such as images of the available resources of the World Wide Web
running on the Internet. Websites and web pages also have tags indicating
content, which the database 302 contains in accessible form. The search
results are displayed according to a display format such as those
disclosed in FIGS. 11-16 for the display of search results.

[0098]The processing routine shown at the right column of FIG. 2
demonstrates a method and means for operating the advanced search routine
initiated by button 208 of FIG. 10. From a start at block 38, the
software routine displays the advanced search button on the GUI according
to block 50. If the user clicks the advanced search button at block 52, a
hyperlink directs the browser software to an advanced search page at
block 54. The advanced search page receives the user's search
preferences, such as the user may elect to enter at block 56, and stores
these search preferences in memory at the user workstation 306.
Thereafter, the search page is displayed according to the user's stored
search preferences, at block 58. The advanced search routine ends at
block 60.

[0099]FIG. 3 illustrates the method and means for entering of personal
preferences, available from a search results page of the search engine.
From software starting at block 62, an optional, modified logical flow
follows the left had processing column, similar to steps 4-14 of FIG. 1.
The search engine displays a login button at block 64; the button is
clicked at block 66, and the login block is displayed at block 68. The
user enters name and password at block 70, and these are verified at
block 72. Finally, at block 74 the user's personal preferences are loaded
and the search box then displays or plays the selected options, at block
88. Some of these personal preferences may relate to the selection of
feature buttons 222, 224, 226, 228, 230, 232, and 234 on the search
results pages.

[0100]Without a login routine, personal preferences are entered and played
according to the right hand column of FIG. 3. After the processing
routine starts at block 62, block 76 displays the preference button 206,
FIG. 1. The user clicks the button 206 at block 78, causing a preferences
page to be displayed at block 80. The user at user station 306 enters his
personal preferences at block 82, and these are stored temporarily at
block 84. The routine loads the preferences to the search page at block
86, with the result that the preferences box displays or plays the
selected options at block 88. These options may relate to the selection
of buttons 222-234, previously described. Processing ends at block 90.

[0101]According to the flow of the left hand column of FIG. 4, the search
results page provides a logical routine actuated by the advanced search
button 208, FIGS. 1,13, or 15. After starting at block 92, the logical
routine displays the advanced search button at block 94. If the user
clicks the button at block 96, the routine displays an advanced search
page at block 98. The user is allowed to enter advanced search
preferences at block 100, and these are stored. Thereafter, the search
page is displayed at block 102 with the stored advanced search
preferences are displayed or played. Advanced search button processing
ends at block 104.

[0102]According to the flow of the right hand column of FIG. 4, search
term entry box 204, FIGS. 10, 11, 13, or 15 provides a search function.
After starting at block 92, the software routine displays the search term
entry box 204 at block 106. The user enters any desired keyword or search
term from a suitable input device 310, and these keywords are displayed
in the search term entry box at block 108. The processing routine may
await further input from the user at block 110. The user subsequently may
enter more keywords at block 112. When the user is finished entering
keywords, he may click the quick search button 202 to initiate a search
in archived network resources at database 302 for correlations to the
keywords at block 114. Upon completion of the search, the software
routine returns to block 106 to display the search term entry box 204 on
any of the search results pages, as shown in FIGS. 11, 13, and 15.

[0103]FIG. 5 shows a method and means of selecting and controlling
commercials to display in viewer fields 220 on the search results page,
based on search keywords. After starting at block 116, the routine
advances to block 118 where available commercials in a database 318, FIG.
17, are selected for play. The selection may take place in several ways.
One technique for selection is to correlate keywords, such as keywords
used as search terms, keywords associated with each archived commercial,
and keywords associated with each archived website or web page within the
search results. The search keywords provide a readily available basis for
seeking correlation. However, the websites and web pages found in the
search also have keyword tags, which enables a commercial to be
correlated with a keyword tag of a website or web page found in the
search results. Thus, it is possible to select and pair a commercial to
run in juxtaposition to one of the search results. The commercial can be
specifically chosen to accompany that website or web page. Further, the
text content of a web page also can be searched to find correlation with
a commercial. The play of selected commercials begins at block 120.

[0104]The user is given the option of designating any commercial of those
displayed in a viewer field 220 to also play audio content, allowing the
user to hear sound. Thus, at block 122 the routine checks whether the
used has selected a commercial, such as by placing the cursor over a
viewer field 220. If no, processing advances to block 128 to check
whether the commercials have ended. If the commercials have not ended,
block 128 returns to block 122 to continue checking for placement of the
cursor over a commercial. If the commercials have ended, processing
advances from block 128 to block 120 to restart playing the commercials.

[0105]If the cursor is over a commercial viewer field 220, FIGS. 11-16,
the sound for the commercial displayed in this field plays according to
block 124. Block 126 continuously checks for the end of the commercial
with sound. If no, checking continues. If yes, processing returns to
block 120 and all commercials play again in the commercial viewer field
220.

[0106]An additional function available from the search results page is to
allow the user to view or visit the listed web pages on the network 304.
The left hand column of FIG. 5 shows the processing to enable this
function. The routine starts at block 130 and at block 134 displays the
URL of a website in the results. The URL can be hyperlinked at any of
fields 212-218 of the search results of FIGS. 11-16. The user can click
the URL by clicking the hyperlink. The browser or search engine brings up
the main page of the website as found in network 304 at block 136, and
processing ends at block 138. At the right hand column of FIG. 6, the
processing routine started at block 130 also displays text of the
websites in the search results, such as at text display field 214 of a
search results grouping in FIGS. 11-16. The text typically is extracted
from the database 302 of archived websites, previously described. Text
display processing ends at block 142.

[0107]In the display of search results, the search engine determines for
each resulting website whether more than one page of that website
contains a hit. Additional pages are indicated at field 218. The sequence
for determining the need for an entry in field 218 begins at block 144 of
FIG. 7. At block 146, a counting sequence for hit pages checks whether
the previous domain name of the URL of a search result is equal to the
domain name of the URL. This inquiry indicates whether the same website
had more than one page with a hit. If yes, at block 150 the search engine
displays the additional hits button 218 with a hyperlink to the IP
address of the further pertinent page. If the previous URL is not equal
to the next URL, at block 148 the search engine creates a results listing
for the next website as the next search result. The routine loops back to
block 146 for continued checking.

[0108]When the search engine has displayed the additional-hits-button at
block 150, it checks at block 154 whether the button is clicked. If no,
processing loops back to block 146 to continue checking URLs. If the
additional-hits button has been clicked, the search engine follows the
hyperlink to the additional hit page at block 156. If the URL for the
website is clicked at block 158, then at block 160 the search engine
displays the homepage of the selected website from network 304.
Processing ends at block 162.

[0109]The search engine streams the archived web pages of each website
from the search result in a group of image fields 216, FIGS. 11-16.
Preferably, there are four image fields 216 for each website identified
as containing a hit. Other numbers of fields 216 could be used, with
suitable adjustment to the following description. FIGS. 8 and 9 shows the
processing sequence for displaying the streaming web pages of each
website in the hit list. The routine starts at block 164 and at block 166
selects and displays the first three web pages of a selected website from
the hit list. In this example, the reference to three pages also is one
less page than the total number of fields 216 for that single search
result. These three web pages are displayed in the first three fields 216
of a series of four image fields. The web pages are selected from the URL
of a website on the hit list.

[0110]One of the image fields 216 is designated as the hit box and will
contain an archived image of a web page qualifying as a hit. At block
168, web page selection routine selects an appropriate web page from the
hit website for display in the fourth or last image field 216, which is
designated as the hit box, at the right end of the series of image fields
in the views of FIGS. 11-16. This final web page is highlighted and is a
web page that contains a specific hit. The highlighted web page is
selected from the archived website having the URL identified in the
search. Thus, in a display of four web pages from a single archived
website, the fourth web page is a specific web page containing a hit,
while the prior web pages are other web pages of the website containing a
page with a hit.

[0111]At block 170 the routine examines the list of URLs of the search
results to determine whether the presently displayed search result is
from the first URL of the search results. If yes, processing advances to
block 172 where the routine streams the remainder of the web pages from
the archived website from database 302 having the first URL. The search
terms or keywords are displayed as highlighted in the streaming display
as an aid to identification, as implemented at block 174.

[0112]From block 170, if the URL is not the first URL, then the routine
pauses for a selected interval at block 200 before streaming the pages of
the next hit website at block 198. The keywords appearing on streaming
pages of the next hit website are highlighted at block 196.

[0113]At block 176 the routine checks whether any of the streaming web
pages have been clicked, such as by a right click to pause the streaming.
If a page image has been right clicked, processing advances to block 176,
FIG. 9, where the streaming flow is paused. Then, at block 180, the
routine displays several available options to the user. These options
might be to enlarge the image of the clicked web page or to view the text
description of the clicked web page. Another option is to rewind some
number of web pages, such as four web pages, in order to replay them in
streaming order. Still another option is to skip to the last web pages,
such as to stream the last four web pages of the website. At block 182,
the routine runs the chosen option, and processing advances to block 184,
FIG. 8.

[0114]The search engine provides a page location function for locating,
retrieving, and displaying a selected page from the network 304. From
either block 176 or block 182, processing advances to block 184, where
the routine checks whether the user station has selected or clicked on an
image viewer field containing a streaming web page from database 302 in a
manner actuating the search engine to retrieve and display the selected
web page. For example, the routine checks whether the user has placed a
mouse pointer on the GUI 316 over an image viewer box 216 and
left-clicked a mouse button. If so, processing advances to block 186,
FIG. 9, where the corresponding clicked web page from network 304 is
located, retrieved, and displayed; and processing ends at block 188. When
a page is selected from a streaming series, the search engine locates the
selected page as available on the network 304. The search engine follows
the URL of the website containing the selected page and then follows such
internal navigation of the website, as necessary, to reach the selected
page and retrieve it. The actual selected or clicked page is displayed to
provide the current content of the page on network 304 and is not
restricted to the stored representation in database 302. Neither does the
routine necessarily revert to the homepage of the website containing the
selected page, unless the homepage is the selected page.

[0115]If a streaming web page is not clicked at block 184, processing
advances to block 190, FIG. 9. There, the routine determines whether the
streaming web pages have reached the last page of a website. If so, the
sequence of streaming web pages is restarted at block 192 with keywords
highlighted at block 194. From block 194, or from block 190 if the
streaming web pages have not reached the last page, processing loops back
to block 176 to determine whether a page has been right clicked, and
continues from there.

[0116]The described search engine operates to provide improved efficiency
and better presentation of information to the user. The strategy of
presenting expanded content of websites provides for efficient and
expedited exploration of surrounding data when the search has located a
pertinent page.

[0117]The associated advertisement running in a field 220 is selected from
a database or archive 318 of available advertisements. The sponsors of
those advertisements may arrange for the selection and display of an
advertisement in response to defined criteria. Possible criteria are
correlation between a keyword tag on the advertisement and the search
term. Other criteria might be a correlation with a tag, title word, or
other identifier of a hit website. Further criteria might be a
correlation with a keyword or other identifier of a hit web page. It
would be desirable to select the advertisement by a correlation with a
website or web page from the search results, so that the advertisement
can be played in juxtaposition with that specific website or web page.
Likewise, it would be desirable to select the advertisement by a
correlation with the highlighted web page in the hit box of streaming
images boxes 216. Such specific correlation would allow pinpoint
precision is presenting supplemental information about a product or
service that might appear on only one web page.

[0118]The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles
of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will
readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the
invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described,
and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be
regarded as falling within the scope of the invention as defined by the
claims that follow.